How Congress gradually weakened in Odisha?
Reportedly today bjp has become the biggest challenge for naveen patnaik, but when naveen patnaik formed the new party, there was congress government in odisha at that time. Ironically, naveen Patnaik's party was successful in removing the congress government from power in the state in 2000 with the help of BJP. bjp and BJD's cooperation continued in the 2004 assembly elections also. Biju Janata Dal again became the largest party by winning 61 seats, bjp won 32 seats and congress won 38 seats. naveen patnaik became chief minister for the second time.
Meanwhile the 11 year partnership between BJD and bjp had broken before the 2009 assembly elections. naveen patnaik had blamed the Kandhamal incident for this. naveen Patnaik's politics further improved after his separation from BJP. The effect of naveen Patnaik's separation was that BJP's support base started shrinking in Odisha. naveen Patnaik's party got absolute majority on its own for the first time in the 2009 assembly elections. BJD was successful in winning 103 seats out of 147. Whereas bjp fell from 32 to 6 seats in this election. congress won 27 seats. naveen patnaik became chief minister for the third time.
Perhaps congress was gradually weakening in Odisha. There was nothing much left for bjp due to separation from BJD. naveen Patnaik's position was continuously getting stronger. Biju Janata Dal gave its best performance so far in 2014. BJD got 117 seats in this assembly elections. congress was reduced to 16 seats and bjp to just 10 seats. naveen patnaik became chief minister for the fourth time. In the 2014 lok sabha elections, BJD had won 20 out of 21 seats in odisha and one seat went to BJP.